Atilla
“According to Outlaw, there are four children inside. One of them is Santiago. I’m going to personally deliver him to his mother. The others don’t have anywhere to go,” I said.
“One of them does,” Lynx said. “Meredith is worried about passing her issues onto a kid, so she wants to hold off on having a baby. She also wants a family, so if those kids need a home, we’ll take one of them.”
I nodded. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask Meredith and Lynx since I knew she’d been having a hard time after losing her baby. Everyone else at the club was single. I wasn’t sure any of them would want to adopt a kid, especially one who’d been through something traumatic. I was up for it, though. I’d missed out on most of Casey’s life. My little girl was all grown up and wouldn’t need her dad for much longer. Then I’d be alone. Not really a good reason to adopt a kid, but I wanted to experience all the stuff I’d missed.
“According to the papers Outlaw sent me, there’s a set of twins in there. Fraternal ones. They’re four years old. Boy’s name is Finn and his sister is Amelia. Then there’s Santiago, who is eight. He’s Solena’s child, and I’m going to make sure she gets him back. The fourth one is a girl. Nora. She’s seven.” I looked at the men who’d come with me. “We get the kids out safe. I don’t give a shit if every adult in that place dies a gruesome death and burns in hell for all eternity, but don’t let the kids see it happen.”
“I’ll handle the adults,” General said.
“I’ll help extract the kids.” Lynx said. “I bet Merry would love the twins.”
“You clear it with her psychiatrist?” Truth asked. “And that’s not being an asshole. It’s me being concerned she might lose her shit when you bring two kids home.”
“No, we didn’t, and how the fuck do we bring that up? I can just see it now. Walk into the office and start off with, ‘Hey, Doc! We rescued these two kids from human traffickers and kept them. That’s cool, right?’”
General snorted. “Truth, you’re with me. I think Lynx and the Pres can handle the kids on their own.”
I shook my head. “No. I’m going to put those fuckers in the ground. I need someone to haul Santiago out of there. I’ll deliver him to his mom, but first I want to look her in the eye and assure her I’ve killed the monsters who hurt her boy.”
“I’ll help Lynx,” Stinger said. “He can grab the twins, and I’ll get Santiago and Nora.”
“How many adults have you confirmed, General?” I asked.
“I see two adults inside the building and three outside. The two inside are together and keeping watch over the kids. The ones outside are scattered. I say we split up to hit the easy ones first, then we can take out the men inside while Lynx and Stinger get the kids out.”
I nodded. “Take the children straight to the SUV and get the hell out of here. Just park at the compound and I’ll be right behind you.”
Lynx tossed me his keys, and I gave him mine. Since I’d driven my SUV here, and I planned to stay until I was certain none of these fuckers were breathing, it would mean someone else had to drive the children out of here.
“Give us time to handle the men outside,” General said. “Once we’re in the building, we’ll subdue the two men watching the kids. Then Lynx and Stinger can pull the children out. We’ll see what we can get out of them once there aren’t little eyes watching us.”
“Or ears to hear the screaming,” Truth said.
I pulled a large bowie knife, knowing we needed to move fast and keep it silent. We split up, each of us tackling one of the men. I kept low to the ground and crept forward, sticking to the shadows. The guy leaned against the side of the building and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. I watched him light up and waited for him to look in the other direction.
I lunged at him, placing my hand over his mouth as I stabbed him in the gut twice. There wasn’t much point in keeping everyone alive. All we needed was one rat out of the five. I dragged my knife up and across his throat, then lowered him to the ground. Since I knew Truth and General wouldn’t let their targets slip past them, I didn’t need to hide the body.
Lynx and Stinger approached me, keeping their voices low.
“I saw General tying up the guy he went after,” Lynx said.
“Truth left a bloody mess.” Stinger winced. “Think he has some anger issues to work through?”
“So we’ve got at least one alive,” I said. “Unless the two inside don’t give us a choice, we’ll keep one or both alive. Two dead isn’t so bad. By the end of the night, none of them will breathe anymore.”
“Think your woman knows about this side of you?” Lynx asked.
“My what?” My voice came out a little louder than I’d intended, and I glared at him. “Who the fuck are you calling my woman?”
He smirked and simply pointed to the building. I knew what he meant. Solena’s kid was in there, and in his eyes, she was mine. Did everyone draw that conclusion when I brought up this mission? Since she worked with Casey, I hadn’t thought much of it when I told the club about Santiago.
“We know you had someone at some point since Casey showed up and you said she’s your daughter. Was her mother your one true love or something?” Stinger asked. “Because no one seems to know anything about her. Why didn’t you introduce her to the club, or talk about her if she was your one and only?”
I didn’t like his questions, but I understood why he’d asked them. “First off, it’s none of your fucking business, or anyone else’s. Except Casey’s. If she wants to know, I’ll talk to her about Rebecca.”
“And second?” Lynx asked. “Because I have to say, he brings up a good point. Even if you loved her more than anything in the world, you know you’re allowed to be happy, right? If something happened to me, I wouldn’t want Meredith to be alone forever. Would Rebecca have wanted that for you?”
“No,” I admitted. “I know she wouldn’t have, but I’ve never found a woman I wanted to hold on to except for her.”
Until now.
“Let’s head inside,” General said coming up behind me.
We entered the building and went up the stairs. If both men weren’t still guarding the kids, we’d handle the issue. I didn’t think they were expecting trouble, or they’d have been more on guard. I heard the whimpers of the children and the voices of the two men. At least we could pinpoint their exact location since the fuckers were being loud as shit.
“Stinger and I will wait in the hall. Once the three of you have subdued the men, we’ll run in to get the kids, but I don’t want to scare the hell out of them.” Lynx’s brow furrowed. “How likely is it they’ll come with us without a fight?”
“Don’t know,” I said. “The fight might have been drained out of them already. I bet they’ve trained the kids to obey.”
And God did it fucking kill me to say those words. The people responsible for the hell those kids had been through all needed to be put through a wood chipper -- while they were still alive.
“Ready?” General asked.
“Yep.”
Truth nodded and gripped his knife tighter. With Lynx and Stinger remaining outside the room, we burst through the doors and rushed the men. The kids screamed, and I hated that we’d scared them. Both men went down. General put his knee in the back of one, pinning his wrists behind him. Truth landed blow after blow on the other man’s face. I placed my hand on his shoulder.
“Ease up. Don’t kill him.”
Lynx and Stinger approached the kids, moving slowly and holding their hands up so the children would see they didn’t have weapons. I knew Lynx had one hidden somewhere, but Stinger didn’t need one. He’d have a syringe on him somewhere, filled with enough drugs to knock out a horse.
I walked over to the kids and caught Santiago’s gaze. He stared at me, his little jaw tense and his hands fisted. This one was a fighter, and it looked like he’d been doing his best to protect the other kids. Good. I knew Solena would be proud of him. I was too.
“Santiago, it’s time to go home.” His nose scrunched, and he didn’t say anything. “To your mom. She’s been looking for you for a long time.”
Some of the tension left him. “You’re lying.”
“Nope. It’s not my story to tell, but I hope you’ll give her a chance to explain everything. That woman loves you more than anything, and she’s at home right now, waiting for you.”
He glanced at Lynx and Stinger, then the other children. “What about them?”
Lynx kneeled down near the twins. “My name is Lynx. You’re Finn and Amelia, right?”
The four-year-olds nodded. The girl stuck her thumb in her mouth and watched him with wide eyes while clutching her brother’s shirt.
“Lynx, let’s get them all to safety. We can figure out where everyone is going once we reach the compound.” I eyed the children. “All of you are safe now. No one’s going to hurt you again.”
“And them?” Santiago asked, pointing to the two men on the ground.
“I’ll take care of them.”
He seemed to understand what I meant and gave me a nod. And fuck if it didn’t hurt that an eight-year-old would know I meant those men were going to die. Even worse, he was more than okay with it. What the hell had these bastards done to the children?
“We’ll go with Lynx,” Santiago said. “But I’m not meeting my mother until I know the others are going to be okay.”
“That’s fine. I’m going to finish up here, and when I get to the compound, we’ll sort everything out. If any of you are hungry, just tell Lynx. He can stop on the way to the compound and get some food for you.”
Stinger cleared this throat. “Um, if any of you know what size clothes you wear, we passed a Dollar General on the way that should still be open. It won’t be anything fancy, but I’d like to get each of you something clean to wear. Shoes too, if they have some in your sizes.”
“Lynx, ask Meredith to meet you in the parking lot of the compound. I know she’s had a rough time of it, but I think the kids might feel better if she’s there. Besides, don’t you want her to meet the twins?” I asked.
“Why?” Santiago demanded.
“Because I want to adopt them,” Lynx said. “Meredith and I do. She lost our baby and has been hurting. When she found out about all of you, she agreed we’d offer some of you a home if you needed one.”
Little Nora approached me. She didn’t meet my gaze or look up from the floor. When she reached my side, she wrapped her fingers around the bottom of my cut and held on. I gently patted her on the back.
“It’s all right now, Nora. Go with Lynx and Stinger. I promise they won’t hurt you.”
I didn’t know why the little girl had latched onto me. Shouldn’t she fear me? What about me made her feel like it was okay to come over like that? I looked over at Santiago again and noticed the soft expression on his face as he observed Nora. It seemed the two were close. Did Nora think I had any say in whether she got to stay with Santiago? Because I didn’t. That was Solena’s call, and since she was already stressed over being able to properly take care of her son, I doubted she wanted a second kid right now.
She still didn’t release me. Santiago had to pry her fingers loose and then took her hand as he followed Lynx and Stinger from the room with the twins. I turned back to Truth and General, only to find both men watching intently. What the hell were those fuckers thinking now?
“Guess we should grab the man from outside and see who wants to talk first,” I said.
“I’ll get him.” Truth cracked his knuckles as he walked out of the room. Something told me the guy would be sporting more bruises when he got here.
“Sit those two upright,” I said. General hauled two chairs over, then dumped the men into them. While he secured them to the frames, I found a third chair for our other guest.
“We ain’t tellin’ you shit,” one man said before spitting at me.
I let my fist fly, landing a blow right across his cheek. The chair rocked from the force and almost toppled over. The asshole spit at me again, then had the audacity to smile about it.
“Take off his shoes,” I told General.
He kneeled down and did as I said, pulling off the man’s socks too. While General held tight to the man’s leg, I pulled out my knife and taught the bastard a lesson. I sliced the bottom of his foot with multiple shallow cuts. He cursed and struggled to break free, but no matter how much he thrashed, he couldn’t shake off General’s grip. When I’d done the same to the other foot, General tied his ankles to the chair legs.
“Next time you spit at me, I’ll take my knife to another part of your body. Understood?” The man glared but didn’t speak. Good enough. It seemed we understood one another. I looked at the other one. “What about you? You plan to talk?”
“I don’t know anything,” he mumbled. “Got paid to watch the kids. That’s all.”
General shrugged. “He may be telling the truth. This other one clearly knows more.”
“Where the fuck is Truth?” I asked.
“Either he’s interrogating the man outside, or…”
Or the dipshit pissed off Truth, and he was already dead. Great. We needed information from these men. Although, if I didn’t get it, there was a good chance Wire and the other hackers would find what they needed, eventually.
“I say we end it,” General said. “I know those kids are ready to get settled for the night. Can’t keep them waiting while we screw around with these two.”
“Fine.” I stepped over to the more compliant one. “Last chance to tell me anything. Give me something useful and maybe I’ll just dump you at the police station.”
“I swear. I just took the job for the money. I didn’t know anyone else here. Got paid half this morning, and they said I’d get the other half once the kids were shipped off elsewhere. None of them talked much around me.” Snot and tears ran down his face. “I’m so fucking sorry. Please. I’ll do the time, just… don’t kill me.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose before sighing. “Fine. I’ll see if Officer Benson will come pick up this trash. But you listen well… not one word to the cops about my club or any part we played in this. If they ask, you didn’t see the men who took out the trash. Got it?”
“Yeah. I won’t say a word,” he mumbled.
“Stop doing stupid shit before you fuck up your life even more,” I said.
“You sure about this, Pres?” General asked. “What if he’s lying?”
“Then we’ll handle it. For now, I’ll give him a chance to prove he’s not a complete piece of shit. The other one is another matter. Gut that fucker.”
General used his knife to carve the other man like a Christmas goose. When he’d drawn his last breath, I sent a text to Officer Benson and exited the building. I knew he’d have questions, and one hell of a mess to deal with… but when he found out they’d been trafficking children, I knew he’d look the other way.
Truth was outside smoking a cigarette. The body at his feet didn’t even look human. I didn’t even want to know what the hell he’d done to the man. I had no doubt he’d deserved every bit of pain, and then some.
“Saw a hose around back,” Truth said. “We should clean up a little before heading home. Might scare the kids.”
He wasn’t wrong. We quickly rinsed any blood off our bodies before getting on our bikes and heading out. I probably had blood on my jeans and shirt, but I’d worn black ones so it wouldn’t be easy to see blood spatter.
The second I pulled through the gates of the compound, I heard crying and a frantic Santiago trying to calm Nora down. Shit. I hadn’t been around kids in… well, ever really. I didn’t have a damn clue how to handle this situation. Texting Solena, I told her to drive over so she could meet her son. Maybe she’d be able to console little Nora.
I turned off the engine and got off the bike. The moment both boots were firmly on the ground, Nora ran for me. I braced for impact and held her against me. What the hell was up with this kid?
“Is this normal for her?” I asked Santiago.
“No. But…”
“But what?” I asked.
Nora sniffled and I kneeled down so I’d be at eye level with her. She blinked at me. A tear rolled down her cheek and her lower lip quivered.
“Daddy.”
What. The. Fuck. I opened my mouth to say something, then snapped it shut. I heard a muffled oh shit from behind me but couldn’t tell who’d said it.
“Nora, do you think I’m your daddy?” I asked.
She nodded and burrowed into me. I hoped like hell I wasn’t getting blood on her. What was I supposed to do now? And why did she think I was her dad? From what I’d read on each of the kids, the only one easily traced had been Santiago. The twins were abandoned at a church. As for Nora, I couldn’t remember anything that stood out about her, except it said she didn’t have any living family.
I needed to ask Wire who her parents were. Had she been a biker’s daughter? Even if that was the case, why me and no one else here? I stood, lifting her into my arms. Her tears stopped, and her breathing evened out. The next time I looked at her, I saw she’d fallen asleep.
“We should get them inside and cleaned up,” I said.
Lynx started shaking his head. “Can’t go in there. Not with them.”
“Why the f… Um. Why not?” I asked.
“Someone didn’t follow the rules. Had some girls over, and the place is trashed.” Lynx looked pissed, and I understood why. This had been an important night for us. These kids didn’t need to deal with this shit.
“Fine. Let’s take them to my house.”
I didn’t know if that was the right decision or not. I had Casey there with her new baby. But at the moment, it was the best idea I had.